Intercultural dialogue between Western and Eastern

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN «WEST» AND «EAST»

 
      Intercultural dialogue is a complicated business. The most important aim of dialogue is a deepening of consciousness of the common elements of different cultures. The dialogue is a way of communication which requires the willingness for change of all participants. An Asian saying tells: «If the winds of change are blowing, some build up walls, whilst others set up windmills». In the context of this question it means that representatives of the different cultural system perceive the World variously and sometime are not ready to organize an interaction between each other. Let’s try to compare the Western and Eastern cultures which seem to be opposite in society. After that, we will attempt to find common ground between them in order to create the intercultural dialogue.

In the modern сulturology «Western» is an American, European and Australian culture. The Western culture began in Ancient Greece. Its development then led to the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and to, what is considered today, as modern civilization. It also significantly exists in many Asian nations, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, and it is increasingly influential in India and China. «Eastern» is the culture of Southeast Asia, South Africa, North Africa, Middle East. The culture history of Ancient East arose in the 4th-3th century BC when the Mesopotamian civilization appeared. This civilization largely based on Semitic populations that existed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

These cultures are different in some points. The first, the Western culture is focused on dynamic person's activity, developing of technologies and changing of the world, whereas, the Eastern culture directs to spirituality. The second, there is a consumer, pragmatic attitude to nature in the western mentality. On the other hand, it was considered that the Eastern culture looks tremulous. They have a philosophic concept of harmony with nature and life. The third, according to the Western culture person is an independent, autonomic figure and has native rights which are warranted by State as Eastern culture underlines respect and reverence of ancestors as the most important thing. Finally, the main feature of the Eastern mentality is a connection between religious, philosophic and scientific ideas while Western representatives are supposed to share these categories as separate parts.

In spite of many differences between Western and Eastern civilizations, it is essentially to realize that they need each other. For all that, the common elements of cultures exist. For example, representatives of both cultures tend to renew an actual social structure, stabilize a long-standing pattern of life, take into account and accumulate experience of predecessor. The rapid development of update technology involves people of Eastern culture to the process of modernization. The western people feel psychological tension, because of heavy workload in a century of innovation, industrial development, so it is becoming more popular to turn to spirituality. Spirituality is one of the most important elements of the Eastern culture and the representatives of the Western culture get the insights, knowledge for themselves to understand better who they are, their spiritual identity, and the real purpose of life from a spiritual point of view. For instance, many people from all the world use Yoga for relaxation, to get to know one's body much better and also to experience another way of living.

As it has been mentioned above that Western and Eastern cultures can’t exist without each other. Human beings must pay attention to peculiarities of both ones. Nowadays, view changing on different cultures leads to recognition that the dialogue between opposite cultures is necessary for the world’s development.